Visual Studio 2017 Help Resource Available Offline

New Help Viewer option allows Microsoft books and resources for the newest VS version to be available and updated with more recent and timely information. Plus: MSDN Editor-in-Chief Michael Desmond offers his Microsoft Build insights on this week's .NET Insight Podcast.

By Michael Domingo

04/28/2017

With the newness of Visual Studio 2017, the help system will probably be getting tested to its limits. It's a good thing that Microsoft is using Azure to maintain accuracy and reliability of the information, as the information will be stored and updated nearly as immediately as it's created, rather than taking the usual six months or so to update it. And much of those help resources will be available in a downloadable format, so that a live Internet connection isn't the one thing to keep developers from keeping those resources within arm's reach.

"We are also hosting the book generation and fetching services entirely on Microsoft Azure, which makes them more performant and reliable," according to Den Delimarsky, the program manager responsible for the docs.microsoft.com site, in a blog post. "We will be continuously updating the content, so you will no longer be stuck with outdated books and wait 6 months for the next release."

The offline books will need to be added during an installation of Visual Studio 2017, under Individual Components | Code tools | Help Viewer (the blog explains the full process). Options include references for Visual C#, Visual F#, ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET API, NuGet, and Scripting Language. To install them after, rerun the installation and modify it so that it includes the Help Viewer option. There's also a way to make that help available locally on other machines, which is described in this Microsoft Doc.

Delimarsky notes that requests for additional documentation resources can be made by developers on the Microsoft Doc Feedback page hosted on UserVoice at https://msdocs.uservoice.com/.

Also, in this week's .NET Insight Podcast, with Microsoft Build coming up in a few weeks, we asked MSDN Magazine Editor-in-Chief Michael Desmond to provide some insights on what a tech journalist does at a conference. We hope that advice proves valuable as you head out into the tech conference-attending season. Also: We want your feedback and also want your suggestions for how to improve this show and who we should interview next!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Microsoft Build (we'll update this link when the on-demand shows are available)

Know of an interesting link, or does your company have a new or updated product or service targeted at Visual Studio developers? Tell me about it at mdomingo@1105media.com.

About the Author

Michael Domingo is a long-time software publishing veteran, having started up and managed several developer publications for the Clipper compiler, Microsoft Access, and Visual Basic. He's also managed IT pubs for 1105 Media, including Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and Virtualization Review before landing his current gig as Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief. Besides his publishing life, he's a professional photographer, whose work can be found by Googling domingophoto.